Starting in September, the United States launched a war of aggression in the Caribbean, with the extrajudicial murders of civilians off the coast of Venezuela. As part of this, the empire has greatly increased its military presence in the region, with clear intent to launch strikes against Venezuela.

The rhetoric coming from the empire is that it is in a “non-international conflict” against drug cartels, and that anyone it designates as associated with the cartels are “unlawful combatants”. In this, it is sending a clear message to the region — the empire is rebooted and will act with impunity for its imperial interests, international law no longer applying to US actions — though, when did it ever apply to them? The empire’s actions represent a clear and present danger to all of us in the region — even in Bermuda — and we ignore it at our peril.

I realise there are many who will strongly react to my inclusion of Bermuda within the Caribbean region. So be it. I have little time for geographical pedantry, which is usually used to try to rationalise what I see as deep-seated prejudices, rooted in White supremacy, towards our sister islands to the south. It is not an accident, after all, that for much of the 20th century, Bermuda and our sister islands of the Bahamas were known as the Jim Crow islands. This was as much a comment on our racial history as a comment on Bermuda’s role as “Fortress Bermuda”, where British troops were based for the purpose of being dispatched to the Caribbean to crush national liberation movements. Bermuda’s role as a garrison town from roughly 1776 to 1995 has had a profound impact on our economy, society and culture — including nurturing prejudices against the wider Caribbean.

The murders of 27 civilians in the Caribbean Sea at the hands of the most powerful military in the world is blatantly immoral and criminal. The US has presented absolutely no justification for these murders — there is zero evidence that the civilians were actually involved in drugs, and zero proof that the boats presented a threat to the US military, which might otherwise justify the use of force in self-defence.

If the US had intelligence that these boats were engaged in drugs, it had the ability to intercept them and provide evidence. Instead, all that the US has relied on to defend its actions is overt racism. In doing so, it has used these murders as snuff films both to satiate the sadism and racism of Maga’s base, while also sending a clear message to the Caribbean region that the empire will do whatever it wants — international law, norms or basic morals be damned.

Of course, these murders also help distract from various scandals and incompetence afflicting the administration, while also advancing the propaganda case for internal oppression and pogroms against people of Caribbean descent residing in the US.

While there is no question that the US is sending messages particularly to Venezuela about a possible war — oil and gold certainly factor in here — the message is also being telegraphed to Panama, which the US has repeatedly threatened to invade. Let’s not forget Canada and Denmark.

The message is also clear to the Caribbean as a whole that the region, as far as the empire is concerned, is a pond in its backyard. The message is clear: obey the empire, or you, too, will be disciplined, be it with economic embargoes like Cuba, or with force, as we see today. And in that we already see the anticipatory obedience of some in the region, notably Trinidad & Tobago, which has chosen to actively collaborate with the empire in these crimes. Similarly, it is not unusual to see members of the regional elite eager to have cocktails with representatives of the empire, or happily shopping in Miami and New York City, effectively condoning the empire using non-elite Caribbean people for target practice.

As individual islands, the region is vulnerable. It is easy for the empire to promote division using the various carrots and sticks at its disposal. It is only through practical solidarity, where the region unites, that we can shield ourselves from the imperial bully. Caricom exists precisely for this purpose. Indeed, in the second summit of the Community of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2014, the Caribbean was declared a zone of peace based on respect for the principles of international law and the need to ensure sovereignty over territories and natural resources. This can be achieved only by standing up to the empire and holding it accountable for its crimes.

That the US is engaging in brutal and blatant murders of Caribbean people is today indisputable. That the US is trampling on international law is today indisputable. It is clear that the US today represents a clear and present danger not just to the Caribbean, but to the world.

Recognising this reality confronts each one of us with some hard choices — individually, collectively, as nations and as a region. Do we stand up for human rights, for international law, for solidarity with the oppressed? Or do we engage in various forms of denialism, of ignoring the threat, focusing on various opium of the people, be it social media, consumerism, fetes or Netflix? Do we submit to the will of the empire? Or do we take the side of the empire?

The American philosopher Ruth Chang notes that often, when it comes to certain hard decisions, we have to take a normative position. That is, we should make decisions based on what kind of person we want to be. Do we want to be the kind of person who stands for justice against oppression? Or do we want to be the kind of person that turns a blind eye to oppression? Or do we want to be the kind of person who surrenders, or actively participates in oppression?

Once you work out what kind of person you want to be, you can start figuring out what practical actions you can take. And once we work out what kind of people we want to be, we can scale up practical actions to the level of the nation or the region.

Think global, act local.

In the face of the brutality and threat that America today represents, what kind of person do you want to be? What kind of people shall we become? I choose to be someone who stands for justice and in opposition to oppression.

What about you? What about us?

• Jonathan Starling is a socialist writer with an MSc in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from Heriot-Watt University